Crossroads: Finding purpose
by Rydragontuesday
Summary: Meet Jack Darby and his friend Rhodey, as they start their journey to protect New York city, and discover other mystery's along the way. Disclaimer: story stays close to the (Armored Adventure) series in the first few chapters and later becomes more AU with a mix of (Transformers:Prime) and (Armored Adventures)
1. Chapter 1

24

Disclaimer

I do not own Transformers, Transformers Prime, Iron man, Iron man 2, Iron man 3, Skyrim, Captain America 1 or 2, Marvels Avengers, Halo, or any other characters from their own realms of games, movies, Book, comics, or other media.

I own only The Hoffer clan and Ryan Brick as my own creations. I own nothing else.

Chapter 1

"_The End of the old life"_

March 1, 2009

05:38 eastern standard time

New York city, New York, America

/

/

A pitch black room is lit up by a bright light and the sound of a welder. As the light and sound dies down we see a boy in a black shirt and blue jeans, with a welder and mask. When the welder is finally turned off the boy removes the mask and looks to the side to a young African American boy in a grey sweat shirt with white stripes on its arms, and black pants.

"Well? What do you think?" the boy with the welder asks the other one as he walks over.

"colorful." Smiling he turns to his friend.

"But you know your uncle is just going to build something better to top this." Grinning down at the table now. "I mean you guys are like dueling evil scientists trying to one up each other, Jack."

The boy now known as Jack smiles even more "not this time Rhodey." He stand strait again and jesters to the table "this one's different. He's going to freak-out when he sees this." Looking over to Rhodey "come with me to show him."

With an irritated look Rhodey said "yeah some of us have to go to school, Jack." Pointing at him "you ever heard of it?"

"Sounds afoul. I'll call you tonight to let you know how it went."

Smirking Rhodey looked down to the table on last time "Uh yeah I'm holding my breath Right now." Looking down at his watch and making a show of holding his breath.

Jake grabbed his arm and pushes him to the door "very funny now go I have to get this ready for trance port."

Laughing the whole time "Ok, ok I'm going. See ya Jack" Grabbing his backpack off the floor and walking out the door.

"Yeah bye." Turning to the table "now what to do about you."

/...

Chapter break

/...

New York. A big, fast moving city with a bay that is always active with boats loading and offloading cargo, and almost immediately to the left you can see a large tower right on the bay with a train station under it. This is the main headquarters of Hoffer Corporation.

As you get closer to the building you can see the boy, Jack, from before walking into the towers main entrance with a bag over his shoulder.

_Jacks P.O.V._

I waved to John on my way in. He looked tired more than usual but it was early so I didn't think anything of it. I walked over to the elevator and hit the 121 floor, Uncle Andrew's office and waited, listening to the elevator music, when the door opened Two minutes later I was greeted by Matt one of the head securities guards of the building.

"Hey J, your Uncle came up about an hour ago." He said smiling.

"Thanks Matt." I said turning Right down the hall greeting people as they walked by.

"Morning Jack'

"Morning Kev."

"Hey Mack what's up"

"Hi Carl"

Turning Left up the small flight of stairs at the end of the hallway I saw Trish at her desk.

"Hey Trish"

Looking up from her computer with a grin "Well look who finally came out of his garage. You're Uncles inside Jack"

"Thanks." I said as I opened the door to his office. The first thing I noticed was that the lights were off and the blinds on the windows closed making it dark. The only light source coming from the desk in front of the windows. A holographic projection showed pieces of advanced machines like power plants, plains, cars, and in the center was a old ring. Then I saw my uncle standing next to his desk talking in to his headset.

"Nno go ahead and proceed with the earth movers trail run. I'll be onsite in an hour and I'll have the ring with me." He seemed to be listing to whoever he was talking to. "Good I'll see you there."

Walking up to him I asked "Are the laser systems I Designed for the earth mover up and running yet or are you still in ancient history mod."

As the blinds moved open and light around the room turned on He laught at the joke. "Very funny. They already completed testing on the lasers and are trying them in the field today. Want to come with me to see it?"

I rubbed the back of my head "actually I wanted to show you something. At the testing grounds. Something big."

He smiled "Big hum, alright lets…" He was interrupted by Obadiah Stain barging into the room fallowed by Trish. Obadiah is an ungrateful prick in my side. An all-around ass.

"Howard!" yelled Obadiah as Trish tried to explain.

"Its ok Trish" My uncle said. She nodded and closed the door.

"Why did you reject my proposal for repurposing the earth movers? The military will pay good money for them once they've been modified." He stopped waving his hands around when he was done.

"Modified? You want to turn an invention made to make people's lives better into a weapon. That's not going to happen."

"This is insane Howard. You're costing this company and its shareholders a" My uncle cut the man off form his enraged speech.

"A fortune. I know, But, Hoffer corp. is my company" For a second I thought I saw my uncle glare at Obadiah. Not that he didn't deserve it, it's just my uncle never glares.

"Howard!" Obadiah looked ready to pop a blood vessel but uncle stopped him.

"It's my company and my word is final." Obadiah scowled and then sighed and walked out.

I looked over at him "I don't think Obadiah is too happy with you" He smiled and laught.

He placed his hand on my shoulder "I think your right. Now we have one quick stop to make then we'll see what's got you so excited."

I smiled as we walked to the door "You're going to have you mind blown by my new tech."

/...

chapter break

/...

On the plain to the earth movers my uncle explained to me the stories about the ring he's so worked up about.

"Some historians believed that the chines had explorers in the new world far before any Europeans. The archaeological dig site we have in New Jersey, the artifacts were finding proves just that. It's a mystery that has everything to do with the McLuhan Rings.

"Wow is that boring" I said that but the opposite was true. I loved learning new things even if it was from the past. So smiling my uncle continued.

"The Chines thought the rings were magic, but from what we're learning I think they actually maybe a form of technology. Imagine Jack technology ten times as advanced as we have today but hundreds if not thousands of years old." He looked down at the ring on his finger, thinking.

I blinked once and lifted my head off my hand "for a man who's shaping the future of the world your hobbies are really old-school." He smiled and laught.

"Ok. Take a look smart guy there's your genus at work down there." He said looking out the window and what I saw amazed me.

The earth mover M.K. I stood ten stories high on six legs. It slowly moved across a giant area of flat dirt.

"A hard light laser acts as a scapula and the targeting system you invented makes clean quick cuts into the earth. Combine that with real time seismograph readings the earth mover will not only revolutionize archaeology, but imagine the benefits for disaster relief, collapsed builds and tunnels, your invention will save lives Jack."

Smiling to him from across the platform "It also mad your last invention look like a fourth grade science project." Leaning on the rail I looked over the land as the earth mover cut clean holes into the earth without disturbing the stone statues that lie beneath the sand.

"Yeah and that's Why I'm grounding you for a month!" This took a good 5 seconds before I reacted

"Wait What!" I yelled over to him standing as straight as a board. And to my utter amazement he laughs.

"You're so easy it's not even fun."

"Howard." Said a man, I think his name is Adam, walked up to us with a box. As he approached dad took off the ring and gave it to the man.

"Wait! You're giving up your magic rig?" I asked in astonishment.

"Only for the day. We're doing a comparison of it and the artifacts found here." He said as we walked down the platform.

"The more we know about it, the better the chance at unlocking the rings secrets."

Finally back on the plain "Ok genus, let's get to the testing grounds and see what you got."

As I sat down to tell him about the suit I built a hologram of Trish appeared on the table.

"Yes Trish?" Uncle asked.

"Sorry sir. Its stain again. He insists on talking to you."

A grim look took a hold of him "its ok Trish put him through." He leans back as Trish disappeared, and rubbed his head. "I think I'm going to have to let Obadiah go. He's become obsessed with weapons."

I look at his with a smirk "a million dollars says he's going to ask about the earth movers again."

He smirked back "your on."

As I got up from my set "I'm going to head back and make sure everything is ready before we land." As I walked by I put my hand on his shoulder as a sign of good luck.

"Howard. I want to talk to you about the earth mover deal."

I grind ear to ear "Hurray I'm Richer."

"I'm giving you one last time to approve this Howard."

"Well I'm just going to have to refuse one last time then." After that the door closed separating the back of the plain from the front. This was mainly the cargo hold and had big boxes stacked around the area. One long metal container was what drew my attention. The box with my latest creation in it.

I walked up to it and opened the main access panel to reveal the keypad. A four digit number made from a 9 digit pad. As I typed in the last numbers I heard a loud noise from the front of the jet. As I turned around I saw a bright light and then nothing.

/...

/...

A jet smashed into the ground in the desert not too far from a large metal object. A large creature stud next to it. Its skin made of shifting metal and one of its arms in the form of some kind of weapon. Its most prominent feature a purple insignia on its arm. Looking over the wreckage it turned away and started running north toward a small cite only a few miles away.

A crash came from within the jet. Then another closer to the right side wing. Then Jack crawled out from the wreck. He was slumped over and slowly moving. He was covered in shrapnel from head to toe and a large piece of metal ran from his back to the center of his chest. He cradled his left arm to his chest below the end of the metal. It only went a couple of inches past his elbow. The rest was gone. Jack was mumbling things under his breath as he slowly moved away from the plain.

"-Not going to die, I'm not going to die here, I am not going to die now!"

Yelling the last part as he reached an object some 30 feet away from the plain. The rest of his left arm. Reaching out with his right hand he griped his other arm and taped the watch on his wrist. A blue colored display popped up on a hologram. It asked for an order.

"Hoffer clan authorization, Alfa code, Darby 3" A green light blinked at the top of the hologram.

"Welcome Jack-" slamming his hand down on the watch the start up was skipped.

"Open suit interface" a red light popped up opening a new menu on the hologram.

"Start pilot protection program, Take-take me to Rhodey…" he slowly slumped forward into the ground. As the watch slowly turned its self-off. A boom was heard at the back of the plain as a black metal being walked out of the fire in the cargo hold of the plain and made a bee line for the boy.

_/..._

_Jack's P O V_

_/..._

Everything felt like it was on fire. My missing arm, my chest and heart. I slumped into the dirt and waited for my death. This was it. It was all over. Then I felt a hand on my shoulder. I opened my eyes and everything blurred but, I saw something above me.

"Pilot status, critical. Suit on board protection systems activated." I blinked and everything was black for a short time. Longer than my eyes being closed. When I could see again the suit was scanning me looking for something. _Damage assessment _part of my mind said but I couldn't focus on it. Then it went black again.

Then I was in the suit. The screen and HUD blinked on showing the crash site and Information started to scroll by faster than my brain could process right now.

"Pilot seeking immediate medical attention. Deep layer protocols activated" everything went black after that.

/...

chapter break

/...

A black object flew across the sky over Nevada. If you looked closely it looked almost like a human made out of metal. It looked almost peaceful on the outside but on the inside it was very different.

The suits HUD switches from showing the sky around it and goes black closing the screen and images pop up on the HUD

"Warning, Power at 68.6%, all systems impaired. Warning, user in need of immediate medical attention, switching to core function mode. Life support priority. Warning, deep layer protocols engaging."

An image of the user, me, appears on the left side of the screen, and an image of his bone structure appears on the right side. Almost immediately red areas appear, showing damage. Most prominently His left arm.

"Warning, Left arm severed, Right arm shattered in seven areas. Left leg crushed, Right leg snapped in three places. Right shoulder bone dislocated. Three cracked ribs above the left lung, damage to the third, fourth, fifth, seventh, ninth, and twelfth vertebrae. Attempting to heal damage."

A Beep is heard and the image of the body closes in on the chest area.

"WARNING, User heart failure imminent. Collapsed left lung, blood filed right lung. Warning meager damage to heart, damage unrepairable. Attempting work around solution."

Images start to appear on the screen rapidly. Some are of medical tool, other advanced technology. An image stops dead center screen. A White see through ring surrounds the heart in the image.

"Attempting Repair."

there is a sharp stabbing pain in my chest then black surrounds me.

/...

Jack's P O V

/...

The first thing I feel, when I wake up inside the suit, is an intense pain in my heart. Then the sounds outside the suit start to sink in. I try to open my eyes but I'm just too tired too.

"_What is that!?"_

"_It looks like a man"_

The sound of doors opening and carts and people moving.

"_Someone call Dr. Yorotakagi"_

"_I already did. He's getting ready for surgery."_

The sounds of metal scraping metal and then the feel of cold air inside the suit. A gasp is heard.

"_Oh gods"_

"_Is he even alive?"_

I can feel someone touch my right arm. Holding my wrist and count.

"_It's faint but he's got a pulse. Hurry we may be able to still save him"_

I can feel them remove me from the suit but that's it. I drift back into helpless blackness.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"_The beginning of a new life"_

September 3, 2011

05:59 eastern standard time

New York city, New York, America

_Jack's P O V_

_/_

_/_

My room was completely dark this early in the morning, but I didn't care. I could still see. I sat on the bed with my left arm over it. My hand touching the heart implant as it glowed under my shirt.

It felt like so long ago that my arm was gone.

/

_**FLASHBACK**_

/

_Bright Lights, Pain all over. People talking, blurred lights appear _

"_He's losing a lot of blood here."_

"…_we need to find the clot….he's going…death"_

"_He's thrashing! Grab him…..God damn it, hold him down"_

"_My uncle, where is, is he?"_

"_Jack? It me, Dr. Yorotakagi. I am trying to help but I can't with you thrashing around like that."_

"_doc.? No, no where is my, my…my uncle…where?"_

"_Jack I'll tell you once you're out of the ER."_

"_Tell ME!...where is he? What's going on? Why, why what was that thing, the plain?"_

"_Jack…"_

"_Please, please, where…Where is my uncle?"_

"_He didn't…."_

_/_

**_END FLASHBACK_**

/

My alarm going off brought me out of my dream, just in time to hear a soft nock on my door.

"Jack you awake?" said Mrs. Rhodes asked from the other side of the door.

"Yeah!" I yelled through the door as I sat up on my bed.

"Breakfast is ready" She said as she opened the door and walked over to my bed.

'Thanks Mrs. Rhodes. I'll be right there." I say as she sits next to me on the bed.

"James is already down stairs. Once you finish eating, you and James will head over to Hoffer corp. Then he'll take you to school for you to start your first day of high school."

I felt her hand on my shoulder and looked up from the spot on the floor I had been staring at.

"It's going to be ok Jack. You'll see."

"Yeah ok." I said as I got up off the bed and walked out of the room.

/...

Chapter break

/...

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Rhodey said next to me caring his backpack over his shoulder. He had a concerned look on his face. I rolled my eyes at him.

"Yes Rhodey I need to meet with stain so I can ask him questions about all of my research." I said as we stopped at a red light only two blocks from the Hoffer corporations building.

"No not that. I mean I am worried about that, but I meant you moving out so soon. You just got out of the hospital last week." The light turned green and we walked across with people moving past us in both directions.

"A hospital that I was stuck in for almost an entire year, watching the world move by around me. Yes I'm sure I'm ready to move to my new apartment. You mom was less worried than you about this and she's my legal guardian." I looked over at him with a smirck.

"You need to stop before you get gray hairs, Bro." He gave me that look again. The look that screams 'I will kill you and dump your body some ware no one will find it'.

"Excuse me for looking out for your skinny ass." He says as a sudden laugh pops into my head.

'_Hahahahaha he said ass_.' Said my guardian, Axle. As he slowly woke.

'_Shut up I'm trying to sleep over here_.' We both stop after hearing Rhodey's guardian, Drack speak to mine.

"Well they finally woke up." Rhodey said as we start walking again.

"Yeah. I thought they would have woken up from this morning's breakfast." That got a grunt from them and a laugh from Rhodey.

"Ha guessed wrong on that."

/...

Chapter break

/...

"Can you check again? I have an appointment." A say to the front guard as police sirens go off in the background. The gourd was of average height with brown hair and what looked like brown eyes behind orange tinted glasses.

"And you said your name was?" he said in a bored voice.

"Jack, Jack Darby Hoffer." I said for the third time. Rhodey seemed to have had enough of the guard though.

"Yeah you know, as in Hoffer Corporation? The company you work for." He said pointing at the building behind them.

'_Can I just rip out his throat_? _No one would miss this Shit head_.' Drack asked with a snarl. Rhodey made no outside show of it but he seemed to agree.

"Yeah they say they have an appointment with Mr. Stain. Says his name is Darby Hoffer. Ah, ah, ah. You can go up." The guard final said with a thumb up pointing to the top of the building.

"Finally.' Rhodey said throwing his hands up into the air and walking forward only to be stopped by the guard again.

"Not you. Just him" he said pushing Rhode's back.

"What?! Uh come on." He was pissed.

'_I'll hit him if he touches you again. _' said Drack as I put a hand on his shoulder.

"It's ok Rhodey." I move my hand when he starts to come down from his anger. He pulled me back a little.

"You absolutely sure you're up for this." He asked with worried eyes

"Yeah. Hey it's still my family company right?" I said looking up at the building.

/...

Chapter break

/...

The ride up in the elevator with the guard was tense to say the least. Once the doors open I was tempted to run out but the guard had my arm in his grip. And we slowly walked across the lobby I noticed something strange. There was barley anyone around. It was Quiet and dark.

'_Were are all the people_?' Asked Axle through are bond. I didn't have an answer for him. But something caught my attention.

"Trish?!" I said looking at the girl at the front desk. She looked up as I moved my hand but was grabbed by the guard.

"Mr. Stain will see you now Jack." She said looking back down at her keyboard.

I shook off the guards hand and walked to the office door. It opened with a hiss. At the only desk in the room sat Obadiah Stain. Talking to someone over the phone.

"No that's Right. I want them brought up to the specs the military sent over. You have my permission as head of the company." I heard the call drop as I got to the desk and Stain turned around.

"What's going on Obadiah?" I asked as I sat down in one of the chairs in front of the desk.

"What are you doing-" he cut me off.

'Jack, Jack, Jack. Don't worry about it. Hoffer corp. is in good hands. Nothing you need to worry about. I'm so sorry we didn't have more time to talk after your uncle's funeral. It hit us all so hard." He said all of this without looking me in the eyes. The man wasn't even looking in my direction.

"But, you have my word I will personally take care of everything until you are legally ready to step back in or till one of your other siblings wants too." That got me mad.

"I want to be involved. My family built this company and they would want-" He cut me off again! The nerve.

"This is what your family wanted, Jack. They wanted you living with the Rhode's, Going to school, being a normal kid."

"I want all of my research and my Uncles notes and-" I'm so going to hit him if he interrupts me again!

"Everything you and your Uncle worked on are Hoffer corp. property. This is a business after all not your personal play ground." A hologram popped up on the right side off the desk.

"Mr. Stain? Your next appointment is here." Trish said from the other side.

"As always lovely seeing you again Jack. And I'll see you again when you turn eighteen." He said with a board look on his face. His hand out stretched waiting for a hand shake. That's when I saw it.

He had uncles ring on. His most priced object in the whole world and this guy was wearing it.

/...

Chapter break

/...

'_Calm down, Jack. Jack! Hay I know you can hear me!'_ axle keep saying in my head but I was beyond pissed at this-this Bull shit that Stain was giving me. The doors opened with a whoosh and I saw Rhodey standing nearby.

"Hey! How did it-" he never finished his sentence.

I threw my backpack on to the ground then kicked it hard. It hit the stop sign on the other side of the road.

'_Shit._' Said Drack.

"Never mind."


	3. First day of school pt 1

Disclaimer

**I do not own Transformers, Transformers Prime, Iron man, Iron man 2, Iron man 3, Skyrim, or any other characters from their own realms of games, movies, Book, comics, or other media.**

/...

/...

"Look at it this way. In two years you get to fire him." Rhodey told me as we walked on the side walk in front of the school. I was still mad at Stain but we were already going to be late so it didn't matter.

"It'll be worth the wait." He said smiling at me. I appreciated that he was trying to cheer me up but my head just wasn't ready for it.

"Do we have to do this, this school thing? Can't we just ditch or something? I can show you the garage I've been fixing up." I asked as we entered the school.

"No chance. If my mom found out we skipped you're first day at school, she would crush us. She is a lawyer after all." Rhodey said with a small smile as we walked through a long hall.

"Why would my Uncle want me to go to school? It doesn't make any sense. I mean he taught me everything I would need to-" I was interrupted by a girl in an orange sweater and blue jeans walking into me and Rhodey.

"Ops!" she said going into a fit of giggles as she walked away from us.

"Yeah-know, this school thing may not be such a bad thing after all. I should give this a try." Rhodey grabbed me by my book bags strap and pulling me down the hall as the bell rang.

/….

_First period_

/….

A man in a light grey suit with matching pants, wrote on a white board with a black marker. He was leaning in closely to the board as he wrote a long math equation. His brown eye's hidden behind large glasses stood out on his face with his grey hair slowly reseeding behind his head.

"What you're looking at here is widely thought to be the hardest math equation in the world and has yet to be solved. Eh, what we are doing today is far less difficult, and-" I interrupted him with my hand up.

"Sir?" I waited till I had his full attention on me. Slowly leaning to the left as Rhodey gawked at me in his chair next to me.

"42?" the teacher pulled down his glasses and looked back at the board.

"Ah, yes, yes Mister Darby you are correct."

/….

_Second period_

/….

"…but when it comes to super conducting transitioning temperatures, that's when the physics of solid state matter-" I interrupted the teacher after I flipped through my 'new' science book for the third time and I use the term, new, as in I just bought it and not in the fact its almost 5 years old. In the world of science 5 years is like a hundred years in anything else.

"Professor? Do you have any other physics books? Mine seems to be a little out of date." As I finished talking Rhodey moved his desk to the right by about a foot. This had Happy Hogan in a fit of silent laughter.

/…

_fourth period_

/…

I was facing the white board as I finished my explanation of plasma Ions and their energy output when used to conduct power. The image I made of the board was something not unlike a Tesla coil smashed in between a shell and gun-like object. As the bell rang, I finished my calculations on the board and turned around to the class and the teacher.

"…Then the energy pulse gives the system a simultaneously positive and negative charge which allows the generation of, well I named it a Stark charge." Students were getting their books and papers to leave. I the back I could see Rhodey face palm.

"Do you think there is any way you could…go over that again?" asked the teacher with a smile on his face. He wore a blue shirt with a white dress shirt underneath, and blue pants. He rested his head in his right hand.

"Of course sir."

/….

_end of seventh period_

/….

"What do we have now?" I asked as we walked down a hallway in the school on the west wing.

"This is kind of fun." I say with a smile as we stop in front of some lockers.

"Well I've got English Lit. and you have a free period so just hangout. Relax and check out the roof top if you want. Some of us have lunch up there. And I'll pick you up after class." Rhodey said as he walked away leaving me alone in the hall.

"Yea ok, see you." I looked at the corner Rhodey walked around with a frown.

"Later."

The sound of closing doors and distant walking the only sound in the air. i was suddenly reminded Rhodey was my only friend in the school.

well he said to check out the roof. maybe someone is up there.


	4. First day of school pt 2

**Disclaimer**

**I do not own Transformers, Transformers Prime, Iron man, Iron man 2, Iron man 3, Skyrim, or any other characters from their own realms of games, movies, Book, comics, or other media.**

/...

/...

/...

The rooftop was smaller than I had originally thought. Only maybe a third of the roof was allowed to be used by students, and that was filled with a couple of giant air conditioners. Also about those students? The roof was abandoned it seemed by the students, but despite that loss the view of the city was amazing.

The Hoffer tower could be seen in the backdrop of the city. The tower was cut off by other buildings but you could see everything past the 50th floor. Its white and shiny surface reflecting the sun's rays. And on the front side the Hoffer Corp. insignia shown proudly.

What was stain doing inside those walls? Was he trying to make money from selling weapons? He was obsessed with them. All this bull with stain brought memories of the plane crash to the front of my mind.

/….

**Flash Back**

/….

_Pain in my legs and right arm. It felt like someone was stabbing my chest, my ribs felt like they were on fire. I could hear metal grinding against metal and a turbine spinning._

_I opened and looked down at my chest and I froze in fear. A two inch thick jagged piece of metal was poking out of my chest just below my heart, and my Left arm was missing from below the elbow. I closed my eyes. So many things can flying to my mind. But I pushed them out of my head and told myself to focus on finding out where I was._

_I opened my eyes again and looked to the left to see a spinning plane engine less than 10 feet away. How close was I to that when we crashed? I shift my eyes to my other side and see an endless expanse of desert._

_Ok priorities. Got to move and find the suit. It has life-support systems on board. First step, get the metal out of my chest._

_I placed my right hand on the blood covered metal. I felt a stab of pain run through me from head to toe._

_"Ok how hard could, could it be? I, I can do-do this." I griped the spike and pulled. I felt like I was pulling my guts out. The edges of my vision blackened and I let go of the metal._

_"Son-of-a-. Ok, ok I, I can. I just have to-"_

/….

/...

"Your dad and Uncle used to work there." A soft female voice snapped me out of my day dream.

"What?" I asked turning my head to the left and up. A red haired girl with a pink shirt and black pants sat hanging off the water tower on the edge of the roof. She had a black tie hung loosely around her neck and a sandwich in one hand. Just from that quick look I could tell she had a small air of superiority around her.

"Your Jack Darby, I mean Jackson Hoffer of the Darby family. You worked there too because you never went to school after you spent time with you family in Japan. Privately tutored after your mother, um ha ha, never mind!"

She took a bite of her sandwich to try and stop herself from talking again so soon. Who was this girl and how did she now me?

"You're living with James Rhodes family. Their you're legal guardians now and you have like a Billion patents on file, and you were missing for 3 days after the plane crash only to show up at a hospital in Tra'vir'a on the west coast of Tamriel." I turned to look down at the street at some point in her fit.

"How do you survive a plane crash anyway?" her question caused me to snap my head back in her direction.

"I-I don't know, just lucky I guess. How do you know all this stuff?" She looked to the right with a smirk on her face then leaned forward with one hand to the side of her mouth.

"My dad's on the FBI task force that's investigating Obadiah Stain after your Uncles, you know 'accident'."(She used her hand to make quotes in the air when she said that.) "He had the most to gain after your Uncles death." My eye's widened with shock, and my mouth hung open. The FBI thought stain was behind my Uncles death. Stain selling weapons, giving me the cold shoulder in his office, and the heavy guard detail. What the Frick was happening with my families company?

"Hi! My name's Pepper Potts by the way." The girl, Pepper, said as she got up and left.

I stood there for a couple of minutes thinking to myself. I needed to find Rhodey and get to my garage.

This was turning out to be one hell of a first day.

/...

Chapter break

/...

"Jack! Wait up man!" yelled Rhodey as we ran through downtown New York.

_"You should answer him. Jack...come on don't zone out on me to."_ axle said as I ran past a stopped truck.

After the talk with Pepper I ran through the school looking for him and told him about what she had said. He tried to tell me something about Pepper not being a reliable source for information but that didn't matter. Once a Darby has an idea it's impossible to stop us. I made a bee line through a crowd of people standing on the side walk, and could see the garage only a couple of blocks away.

It was painted in white, but it had faded in the year of my absence. The garage wasn't the biggest building in this area of the city, stopping at three stores high, but that was fine since it also was a home away from home.

"Wait man! Where are you going?"

Crossing the last block I stopped in front of the large car door and walked over to the right side. A Grey Box sat on the wall. Opening it I can see a control panel consisting of a nine-digit number pad, a eye scanner, and three large buttons on one side.

As I typed in the code for the door Rhodey had time to catch up to me.

"Finally, we stop." Rhodey said with his hands on his knees, only for the door to open and for me to walk in.

"Never mind."

Walking across the floor the light switch I hit the light and lit up the room.

The large main room was meant to hold up to 10 large SUV like vehicles and a connecting staircase lead to the second level of the room. Here sat a large metal table and chairs to the right, along the back wall were racks of old car parts.

'I've never been in this building before. my parents maintain a lot of buildings for your uncle but they never let me in them. Jack?" Rhodey said as I walked up the staircase. Once on the second level I walked to the back to a large door leading to a hall way. the hallway had many doors on both side of it. I walked to the end of the hall way and put my left hand on the flat wall. A blue light lit up the wall and a crack ran down the wall on both sides of me. as the crack went up the wall they stopped and turned to each other and connected at the center to make a doorway. I pushed on the door and it move upwards for me to walk through.

"Jack?" Rhodey said from somewhere behind me

"Yeah?"

"What are you doing?"

"Showing you my new garage."

/...

Chapter break

/...

"Wow"

"I'll take that as a sign you like it." I said to Rhodey as he looked around the big room with his jaw hanging open.

the lighting was a lot dimmer than the other room. This room looked a lot like the last room but there was a recreational area in the far left side of the second floor with a flat screen tv and sofa in front of it. Instead of a single metal table there were four spread out around the right side of the floor with metal parts and papers spread out over them. in the the far back there was a door to other room, many of which were spare sleeping and storage rooms. on the main floor there was a expanse of spare parts on shelfs in the left corner. This room also had car in it. starting from the left there was a Black 2014 Mitsubishi eclipse with it hood popped open and parts laid out in front of it, than a dark blue 2009 Kawasaki-ZX-6R stood with its kick stand out , and finally a black KTM-Ducati stood leaning against a table.

in the center was an arrangement of three desks with one desk facing the stairs and one desk on ether side of it. It held a computer and a large pile of papers. the one to it a mediate left also held a computer but t computer monitors sat on it. the third desk was covered in a random assortment of metal and hard plastic pieces. and Finally in the right side of the room sat a large amount of tables and desks covered in papers, books, prototypes and screen placed randomly on them. The screen showed images, maps, pages of text, and Math equations.

"This is the garage you've been fixing up?"

"Yep." I said as I lean against a table.

"Ok so, J-Jack you have to take everything Pepper says with a grain of salt man. I mean shes a bit on the crazy side." Rhodey said when he reached me.

"Crazy or not, I think shes right."

I walked down the stairs to the desks in the center and typed in a command into the computer. A piece of the wall behind it lifted up and a large screen came out. It showed the Hoffer Corp tower.

"And I know how I can find out the truth." I looked over to the dirt bike to my left.

"Isn't that right Dun-runner."

At first there was no immediate response and Rhodey was looking at me like I had lost my mind, well What was left of looked like he was going to say something when the bike's head light turned on and the static came over the radio.

/-SSSShhkk...KM-satellite radio-SSShhkk...Are you ready to Rumble!-SSSShhkk-/

"What the F-"

The bike moved forward. Parts on the bike moved around shifting places and transforming in size and shape. metal shifting against metal was the only sound in the room now. when the parts on the bike finished rearranging it stood up. the bike had transformed into a 7 foot tall metal suit. its legs and arms were made from a assortment of metal pieces connecting over wires and hydraulics, its wheels shift upward behind its shoulders, and a complex hard-light metal face-plate stared right back at Rhodey.

/-SSShhkk-Reporting for duty captain-SSShhkk-Whats the emergence-SSShhkk-/

/What do you need Jack?/

/...

Chapter break

/...

"Ok so you gave him a name.'

"Of coarse not, He gave himself a name."

we sat in some chairs to the side of the main desks and had been for the last 5 minutes trying to explain everything to Rhodey. He wasn't as socked as I had originally thought. I guess spending so much time with someone who does the unthinkable almost every day makes you expect the unexpected.

"Ok so what are you going to do with Dun. Beat Stain up."

"Yes. that's exactly what I'm going to do. I going to go beat the truth out of him." The look of surprise on Rhodeys face was almost overshadowed by his smile of disbelief.

"Really?"

"No not really." I said as I turned to Dun.

"Dun has surveillance systems built in to his armor, I can use them to spy on Stain and see if I can Find out anything. Sucker." I had just enough time to turn back to Rhodey before he grabbed me. We pushed back and forth, laughing for a little bit until my heart-monitor went off I and I stopped slouching into Rhodey with a hand on my chest.

"Jack! I'm sorry, are-are you ok?" He said with his hand on my shoulder in concern.

"Yeah I'm fine. Its just a reminder alarm, I've got to recharge in an hour or so." as I typed a restart command into my watch.

"This is a bad idea, Jack. For about a billion different reasons. Your still hurt. If You don't recharge the implant in your heart its all over."

"I'm fine mom." I said over my shoulder to him as I got the last of Dun's armor and systems ready.

"Fine except for the implant in your heart. If you exert your self with Dun, or he losses power, or-or your hit by lighting, I don't know what but your will give out."

I turned to Rhodey as he finished his rant. I was done with him looking out for me right now. he needed to understand what was going on just as much as me. I looked down at Dun's arm as it split down the middle and opened along with the rest of the armor.

"I've got to do this Rhodey. For my Uncle. I couldn't save him, but I can stop Stain. I can save everything My family built." when I looked up at Rhodey he didn't look as mad or frustrated any more.

"Will you help me Rhodey." I asked as he looked at me.

"Fine, But the second anything hose wrong you get out of there. Got it?"

"Fine, you big cry babe." I said as we laughed.

I may never get my family back, but with Rhodey, maybe I can find out what happened to them.

/...


	5. Rise of a hero

**sorry for not updating in so long. Got caught up in work and family so with out longer delay, the next part in CrossRoads.  
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**Disclaimer**

**I do not own Transformers, Transformers Prime, Iron man, Iron man 2, Iron man 3, Skyrim, or any other characters from their own realms of games, movies, Book, comics, or other media.**

"Normal speech"

'_Guardian speech'_

/Robot sub-sonic speech/

/...

/...

/….

'_you could fly, you know, closer to the ground so we don't die on impact' _Axle said.

/So is there a plan to this or what?/ Dune asked as we flew high above New York. Dun had been silent since his introduction to Rhodey and most of the way to down town. Guess he finally wanted answers.

"Well we get close to Hoffer corp. Hack into their systems and find any data on stain or my Uncles disappearance." I said as I swung left and then spun downward. Zooming past some office buildings a buzzing sound filled the helmet. A white box popped up on the top right side of the HUD. Rhodeys name popped up above it.

"He-hello? Can you hear me? Jack?" There was a small amount of static in the line but he came in loud and clear.

"RHODEY!" I said just missing a building to smash right into a bill-board. Bouncing off it I turned right down another street in my attempt to make it downtown to Hoffer corp.

"You have GOT to try this. Are you getting my feed?"(Crashing into another bill-board) "We'll have to upgrade your system at home and this is Incredible!"

As I finished talking a warning alarm went off and Dune just had to have a snarky input.

/Yeah about that? He's not flying with me and also? You may want to learn how to fly yourself seeing as that building is coming close very quickly/ of Course he said it in computer code meaning Rhodey couldn't understand him.

"Uh your not going to hit that building, are you?" Rhodey said as I leaned to the left then to the right only to not go in either direction.

/500 feet till impact/ Shut up Dune.

'_I'm to young to die'_

"Uh right I should turn."

Moving my whole body to the right I moved away from the building at the end of the street only to hit the side of an office building on the corner of the street. I bounced off to the right then flew, more like fell, down to street level. I missed a cab and hit my repulsers on max to fly back into the sky.

"Okay, no problem I got this."

/No you don't know how to really fly you idiot/

"I never really had the chance to, you know, actually use the suit or fly with Dune before." I said to Rhodey. He didn't seem to surprised.

"humph, your not really filling me with confidence here Jack."

"Quite your worrying Rhodey I've got Dune with me. Everything is working fine." I said as I flew toward Hoffer corp.

"Nothing could go wrong."

'_Sure, not like that hasn't been said before.'_ Axle and Drake said together._  
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/...

chapter break

/...

I flew in to the right side of the building up to Stains office and stopped at his window. He wasn't there so this just got even easier. I flicked my eyes to the left and brought up the systems that run security for the office. Nothing to impressive, they barely changed any of the codes and programs I installed.

"okay, I'm hacking into the Hoffer mainframe through the main satellite feed. Shouldn't be to hard I designed half of it." I said as a row of files popped up on the right side of my HUD.

"Okay I'm in. I'm downloading all Stains files just prier to the jet crash." as I opened on marked earth movers. Why did stain have a earth movers file? a blueprint of the earth movers popped up and there seemed to be major changes to her system output.

"Yeah I see them. I'll start-" Rhodey started to say only for me to cut him off.

"What that's, that unbelievable, He did it. Stain turned my Uncles earth mover into a weapon, and My lazier system!" Of all the stupid thing stains done this is one of his worst.

/heads up bro./

"Jack are you see in this? Hoffer security is receiving an alarm. There's a train that's gone out of control." Rhodey said as I heard him on his keyboard in the back ground.

a link popped up center screen. Stain was calling someone. I didn't have time for a runaway train.

"Hang on. Stains sending out a live transmission. I think hes trying to sell the earth movers." I moved through the Hoffer system to try and find a way into the call, only for the HUD to drop all of the files and back out of the systems.

/You need to see this, Jack/ Dune said as the HUD lit up with a map of the train tracks. Four pink box's were moving towards Hoffer Corp. at an alarming rate.

"Jack something is really wrong. The train is speeding up and it's been rerouted onto the privet Hoffer tracks. Jack, its going to crash into Hoffer tower!"

/Jack we can help them./

'_You need to make a choice, Jack'_

"Wait, hang on, What! There's hundreds of people in there." I zoomed in on the train. it was picking up speed. I looked down at the base of the tower, were the track meet the building. A large box like object was sat on the tracks with a few scientists walking around it.

"It'll hit the buildings power generators. The entire building could-" I cut myself off, not wanting to finish that thought. "I have to stop it." I pushed downward and maxed the thrusters when I was even with the track.

"I can do this, I just have to switch the tracks right?" I say as I pull open the flaps and slow down when I reach the inter section.

"You still have to slow it down. Let me see if I can a map or something."

/Jack, you slowed down but you still need to land./

"Piece of cake, right?"

'_No'_

I pulled the flaps on my shoulders and pushed my feet in front of me. I was still going faster than needed and my left foot slipped on the metal tracks. I started tumbling down the track towards the switch. Falling onto my right knee I slid down to the ground and finally slowed.

/I've got blue prints on the tracks/

"Dune's connected to the cities mainframe, Department of Transportation. The train switches aren't responding, that's wearied."

I walked closer to the switch arm holding the tracks up and I didn't see anything blocking it from moving.

/so its not mechanical got to be electrical, right?/

"More than likely, but something like would have been seen in the inspection done last month. It doesn't make sense the wiring would fail now."

"Jack, where is the train?"

snapping my head up I looked down the track to see where the train was.

"Oh nuts." I said as I moved over to the switch controls and started scanning them, while Dune looked through the tracks schematics of file.

"Hang on Dune and I are looking for a way to fix this."

A image of a blue print for the switch popped up on the HUD. A red high-lighted area showed where the power was flowing.

"Got it" I said as I blasted the circuit box, frying the clamp and unlocking the switch arm.

i dropped down onto the switch arm and pushed it into the next line. after it screeched into place and the new clamps toke hold I looked up just in time to see the train hit the switch track.

"Aah!" I yelled jumping out of the way just in time. The train passed me speeding away from Hoffer corp. down the other track.

"Crises averted." I said as I stood back up on the track.

"Dude! What did you do?" Rhodey yelled with a panicked voice.

"I switched the train to another track?"

"Bro, that line only goes to Hoffer Tower. The track you switched it to, It's not finished!"

I switched to a satellite and scanned the city. I stopped on a construction site not six blocks over from where I was. A crane was holding a support beam in the air as workers moved around the track. on the street below traffic stood at a stand still waiting.

"Instead of crashing into Hoffer Corp. it's going to crash into the middle of the city!"

"Oops?" I said as I clicked out of the satellite to meet the blue shy. Crouching down I powered up my repulsers and flew into the air.

I flew along the right side of the train. pushing my boot-jets faster I moved up along the cars until i saw a billboard speeding towards me.

"Wow" I said as I flew over it just in time.

"Come on, come on. think." I said as I slowly moved up the train.

_'could always try to force it to stop' axle said. _Axle, that has to be the worst idea ever. I mean the trains going almost 60 mph even if i had the power to slow it down I'll most likely get crushed.

well I didn't have any other idea so, frick it.

slamming my repulsers into high gear I sped down the track and stopped in the middle with my hands out and ready to grab the train walls.

/just saying this is a bad idea/

When it hit me it hit with a shit ton of force. For a half a second it felt like the train had stopped, then I was flying back with my heels digging into the ground. I felt the train slow but not as much as I wanted or needed. I pushed the gears and joints to their breaking point and felt some of them snap. More and more weight was put on my body the longer I held back the train. I heard a system alert go off in the suit.

"Medical alert in-progress. cardio-implant energy levels are depleted, switching to back-ups."

'_Jack!"_

/Jack, you need to get out of there./

"Jack, Your heart has to be recharged. You've got to stop!" all I their words did was to spur me on more. I felt something that I hadn't felt in a long time, purpose. It didn't matter what happened to me as long as could help people.

"Can't stop! Too many lives. Wont stop! aah." I said as I pushed more power into my repulsers. The metal on the train door bent and twisted under my hands. The door gave way and I was sent sprawling inside. I slid till I hit the other end.

"Never mind." I said as I sat up in the empty train car.

I smashed the back door open and fired my repulser into the connecting locks. the locks melted and cracked apart. the three train cars fell away slowing down along the track eventually coming to a stop.

I gaped the side of the remaining car as it went off the end of the track. I heard screams and shouts, hitting the repulsers with everything i had left I pulled the train car up over my head. slowly moving to the ground I dropped the train to the side of the road.

I felt like I was going it lose power any second then i felt a power serge and a presence.

/you did good, Jack. Rest, I got this./ Dune said and you know what? that didn't sound like a bad idea.

/...

chapter break

/...

"Charging in-progress. Power at 15%." said a synthetic female voice as I leaned against the desk, recharge cord stuck in my chest.. Once I got out of the suit it felt like my chest was on fire and my heart was being stabbed in a thousand different ways. Rhodey helped me over to the nearest desk as Dune switched back to his personal bi-pedal form and slumped down onto the ground next to the desk with his own recharge cabal in place over his reactor.

"Like I said, piece of cake." I said smiling at Rhodey.

"It's already allover the news, and about a thousand people have video of you on their cell-phones. Their calling you Iron-man." he said walking up to me and Dune.

_'You guys did pretty good out there for a bunch of idiots.' Drake _

"Forget good, Jack, Dune You guys are hero's." Rhodey said as I unplugged the charger and turned around. crossing my arms over my chest I looked over the garage.

"My Uncle always wanted to use technology to help people, to save lives. And thats what I'm going to do. thats what Ironman will do." I said as Dune stood up from his spot on the floor.

"I'm going to save Hoffer Corp from itself and maybe along they way find out what happened to my uncle." I said as i looked at them.

/Ssshhkk-Not with that-SSShhkk-Name sounds-SSShhkk like the stupidest think I've heard-SSShhkk/ Dune said waving his arms around.

'_he's got you there going to need a good name for a super hero.' Drake said._

_'oh, I know how about Iron-Smasher?'_

"No"

'_Iron-Ranger?'_

"No"

_'Metal-hero?'_

"No"

_'Iron Fist?'_

"It's like your saying what ever comes to the top of your head."

_'Metal-bullet?'_

"Fuck."

/You don't pay me enough for this./

"I don't pay you at all."

/Exactly my point/

/...

/...

**hope This makes up for not posting last week.**

**bye.**


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